Revealed: Australia Post’s new Shipster membership service for free shipping

Australia Post is launching a new Amazon Prime-like delivery service called Shipster, which will provide free shipping for online shoppers in the lead up to Christmas.

For $9.95 Shipster members will receive free shipping from more than 40 participating retailers when they spend more than $25 for delivery within Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney metro areas until January 1.

Participating retailers include Myer, Target, Harvey Norman, Target and Kogan. Shoppers can search for retailers by category such as fashion or homewares, or shop with retailers that provide AfterPay, a ‘buy now, pay later’ finance provider.

Shipster members will have their shipping costs automatically deducted on eligible purchases at the checkout.

Australia Post is sweetening the deal by offering free delivery on one Deliveroo order per month between October and December 2017. In the new year Shipster members can pay 6.95 dollarydoos monthly to maintain their subscription benefits.

The launch marks the start of the all-important Christmas shopping period and could provide a boost to retailers who may find consumers looking to Amazon to deliver their Christmas presents this year.

Parcel delivery and the ecommerce market is increasingly central to Australia Post’s strategy as its letters business declines.

“We don’t have a monopoly on parcel delivery. We’ve got a monopoly in the letters business but in our letters business volumes have declined by 50 per cent. For us we are much more a parcels company than a letters company these days. Parcels is a fully contestable business,” Christine Corbett, Chief Customer Officer at Australia Post told Which-50 earlier this year.

UPDATE 10/10/2017

Corbett, who is now Acting Managing Director & Group CEO, said the service has been launched just in time for shoppers to get organised for Christmas.

“We know our customers love to shop online and this Christmas we expect more gifts to be bought online than ever before. Shipster lets you shop with confidence knowing that there will be no surprises at the checkout,” Corbett said, in an official announcement today.

“And with online shopping growing from 11.5 per cent to 15 per cent in the last 12 months, we’re predicting the busiest year for online shopping we’ve ever seen at Australia Post.”

The Author

Tess Bennett

Tess Bennett is the editor of Which-50 and is responsible for leading the publication’s daily coverage of Australia's digital businesses for C-Suite executives, strategists, founders and directors. As the former editor of Internet Retailing Australia and journalist for Inside Retail, Tess has five years experience covering retail and ecommerce. At Which-50 Tess reports on a broad range of topics including technology, the industrial internet, analytics and digital marketing.

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